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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Only 584 glasses of water until school starts...hey, you use your calendar, I'll use mine

I am TERRIBLE at drinking water. I guess I'm just your typical desert rat. It's really bad...I will go days and days never drinking one glass. Which would be fine, I suppose, if I drank lots of juice and other fluids, but I don't drink much of anything at all. I always have a Carnation's chocolate milk with my hard-boiled egg in the morning, about a third of a bottle of Gatorade with lunch, and an iced tea with dinner. That is literally IT for the entire day. Whenever I go to an amusement park or some other physically taxing outing, everyone around me is chugging down bottled water all day long, while I, on the other hand, take a sip here and a sip there, nursing one bottle all day long. For whatever reason, I have a very lousy thirst response. This has never bothered me too much, because I trust my body--that is, I figure that my body's not going to let me DIE of thirst. If I were truly dehydrated, then my body will send me thirst signals, right?

But lately I have started to question the validity of this notion. Just about every related study in existence stresses the importance of drinking water. Clinton has also really been pushing me to drink more water in the last few months. He really thinks that if I were more hydrated, it could help my voice come back, make my skin less dry, etc.

I'm not sure if water is the magical elixir it's claimed to be, but for me, just the thought of getting my voice back to some small degree is enough for me to at least give it a try. The problem is I've tried in the past to drink lots of water, and it simply doesn't work. I'm sorry, but water is just BLAH. It has no flavor, which is just...well...BLAH. How do people guzzle down that stuff? It's just a bunch of blah-ness that fills up your stomach in an unpleasant, gurgling sort of way. In the past, when I've made goals to drink eight cups of water a day, I usually get to about cup #2 when I lose interest and forget all about it.

So this time, feeling really serious about my H2O goal, I set an alarm on my phone that goes off every single hour for eight hours straight to remind me to drink a cup of water. The alarm plays this obnoxious song that Clint found on the internet, with these loud lyrics that say "We need water...water brings life!" Ughh it's annoying, but it is very effective. I even have a plastic cup in my purse that is exactly one cup, so when my alarm goes off in public (as it has several times now), I can go to the nearest drinking fountain and fill up. Clint scheduled my alarm to continue on for the next 73 days, so that's only...hmmm...73 x 8= ....crap, let me pull out the calculator...584 more glasses to go to reach my summer goal.

So far the plan is working amazingly well. I haven't missed a single H2O appointment, and tonight, for the first time ever, I actually felt thirsty for a glass of water, of all things!

Now for my next goal: Growing a bigger bladder. Cuz the current one ain't cuttin' it.

6 comments:

This is going to sound silly and cliche, but put lemon in your water. It doesn't do much good for public, when there're no lemons available, but I find it really helps water taste less like...well, water. I hate it too, so you're not alone. I've never been a water drinker. They say lemon in the water can help boost metabolism and aid weight loss, though I don't think you have either problem. lol. Just a suggestion. Good luck!

Jodi, you and I are so much alike! (Duh? LOL) There are nights when I realized I went the whole day, and the only beverages I had were one cup of coffee and a couple of swigs of milk. This post got me thinking...maybe I should try to drink more water too? I know that headaches can be caused by dehydration. I almost never feel thirsty though. Drinking water for me is like trying to eat a piece o plain celery. Boring. And my body doesn't crave it at all. When I drink it, it just makes me feel unpleasantly full.

@ Damien, the first day of my water drinking extravaganza, I didnt have to tinkle AT ALL. I think my body was like "Woo hoo! Finally got some water! Quick, suck it in, suck it in!" But now I'm going every friggen' twenty minutes too, LOL. I don't know how I can possibly keep up with this once I'm back in the classroom.

Shan, I think you should try this! It's day three now, and I'm already feeling more energetic and less "blah." If you decide to do it, set an alarm on your phone, cuz I know you'll never keep up with it otherwise. It's actually really manageable if you stick to drinking only one cup an hour.

I agree with Kristyn about the lemon. It really does seem to help. Actually, any fresh fruit or vegetable - cucumber, orange, grapefruit, lime -helps with the taste. But, you can get used to just plain water too. I love it. Use lots of ice - very refreshing on hot days.

And, yes, when you actually start drinking water regularly, you will find yourself craving it more. Good for Clint, good for you.

what a ka-winkie-dink. When spring ends I have to switch from my usual liquid intake to a very water intensive one. I leave for work in the morning w/ 64 oz of water on board that I drink before I fill up again somewhere near noon. I have to because once the ocean temp is warm enough I absolutley can not get a leg cramp when 6ft + waves barrelling down on me, you can get hurt too easily. One of my tricks for getting more water down is using perrie sparkling water with a dab of iced tea. parts of fruit juice can be added as well. In fact, we water down almost everything we drink here, espically what pumpkin drinks.